The present invention relates in general to appliances used to process food and drinks. More particularly, the present invention pertains to food and drink blenders having a plurality of programmable blend operations selectively actuated by the user. More specifically, the present invention relates to such blenders where the programmable blend operations may be loaded, changed and copied by the user without the use of an external device such as a computer.
Appliances to facilitate the processing of food and drink ingredients have become ubiquitous in both commercial and residential settings. Such appliances are particularly useful where there are a variety of operations to be performed repeatedly with accuracy and precision, such as with the blending of drinks in commercial establishments like bars and restaurants.
Originally drink blenders required the user to manually start and stop the blender motor, leaving the quality of the blend and resulting drink, and the consistency of the mixture, to the skill of the user and chance. Moreover, the motor included within these blenders had a single operating speed that was too fast for some blends and too slow for others, making quality blends and consistent mixtures even more difficult for the user to manually achieve.
User selectable motor speed controls and timers were incorporated into blenders to facilitate greater consistency from drink to drink, but the user had to reset the controls each time a different kind of drink was to be made, and most times a different ingredient was added.
More recently, digital electronics has made it feasible for blenders to include memory in which is stored the different motor speeds and operating intervals required for making a plurality of kinds of drinks. These digitally controlled blenders kept user control activity to a minimum by furnishing a separate button for each kind of drink whose program (called a xe2x80x9cdrink programxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cblend programxe2x80x9d) was stored in memory. A user simply pressed the button corresponding to the desired kind of drink, and pushed a start button to commence blending of a drink. The resulting drinks were the same no matter who made it, or when or where it was made. The fast, consistent, reliable and complete mixing performed by these blending units were welcomed by both commercial and residential users.
From time to time changes in user taste or preference, or changes in location of a blender used in commercial food service, has given rise to a desire or need to change a drink program or substitute programming for different kinds of drinks. A like need also might arise from corruption or loss of preprogrammed drink operation stored in memory such as from electrical failure. In the past, modification or replacement of drink programming required that the unit be returned to the manufacturer because disassembly was needed, precluding reprogramming outside the manufacturer""s facility (i.e., in the field). A user could not modify or replace one or more drink programs at the user""s site.
More recently, however, machines that may allow for a limited extent of program entry by the user may have become commercially available. The models xe2x80x9cCopacabanaxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cipanemaxe2x80x9d from Gaggia Espanola, S. A. of Barcelona Spain are machines for the making of espresso and cappuccino drinks. These machines appear to read information encoded by an external programming device onto a magnetic strip adhered to a plastic card, much the same as an Automated Teller Machine reads information off a credit card. The model xe2x80x9cABC Blenderxe2x80x9d from the Blendtec division of K-TEC of Orem Utah connects via a serial programming port to an external computer from which drink programs may be entered.
Both the Gaggia Esponola drink machine and the ABC Blender require an external device such as a computer to enter, modify or duplicate the drink programs. Generally, such additional, sometimes specialized equipment is not available to or convenient for the user. As a result, this makes uneconomical and often precludes user modification of existing drink programs and the creation of new drink programs, and prevents distribution of such programs to other blenders at the same or related sites.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an appliance for processing of food and drink ingredients having a plurality of preprogrammable blend programs, in which the blend programs allow programming for multiple ingredient blends requiring a plurality of intervals of motor operation at different velocities and accelerations.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an appliance, as set forth above, in which the blend programs may be changed by the user, and the modified blend programs saved to nonvolatile memory, using only the appliance itself.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an appliance, as set forth above, in which user changes to blend programs may include modification of any drink mix characteristic or the ice content of any drink including ice, using only the appliance itself.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an appliance, as set forth above, in which entirely new blend programs may be created by the user, and the new blend programs saved to nonvolatile memory, using only the appliance itself.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an appliance, as set forth above, in which the user may duplicate the blend programs for use in other blenders or as backup, using only the appliance itself.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide an appliance, as set forth above, in which the user may copy selected blend programs to a transfer mechanism such as physical media, using only the appliance itself.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention over existing prior art forms will become more apparent and fully understood from the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
In general, a programmable blender for executing a blend program includes a blending assembly for blending ingredients, memory including a first blend program having a plurality of operating segments with variable blend program operating characteristics, input means for user selection of a first operating characteristic to be modified and the modification magnitude, and a processor. The processor receives the blend program from the memory and the user selection from the input means, modifies the first operating characteristic in accordance with the user selection, and controls operation of the blending assembly in accordance with the modified blend program.
A blender for executing a blend program includes a blending assembly for blending ingredients, a first memory resident in the blender for storing a blend program, a second memory in operative association with the blender for storing the blend program, and a processor resident in the blender receiving the blend program and selectively copying the blend program from the first memory to the second memory and from the second memory to the first memory.